19 Its Your Castle (1/2)

The cleaning fairies had made tremendous progress already. About ¼ of the castle was clean. Clean but with broken furniture. Ash would need to address that problem next.

Like he told Blair, he had absolutely no intention of rebuilding the coven but at the very least he should replace what he broke. The empty rooms could stay empty for the rest of his miserable eternal life.

Ash would stay here alone reflecting on his own stupidity and how he had failed to protect everything that mattered to him until he rotted away. But first he needed to exact his revenge on the Cromwell coven.

He wasn't sure exactly how to do that yet. When he escaped, his only thought was that he had to live to fight another day. The Cromwells were rich and powerful but he had no idea where their wealth came from.

The Mayhew coven had sustained themselves by trading information and knowledge with the witches. They were a clan of researchers. Or you could call them spies.

Ash wasn't involved in that aspect of things. People reported things to him constantly but he hardly paid attention to intelligence reports unless they posed an active threat. That had led to their downfall.

Thirty-six vampires—including people he had known and cared about for centuries—had died because of his mistake. People who trusted him.

That was why he was so intent on not breaking Ruby's trust. He couldn't let anybody down again. This fairy trusted him at her weakest point when he was a total stranger. That fragile trust was precious and he could not afford to lose it. At least not until she left.

If she thought he had been spying on her, she would be furious. It was better to let this blow over. She could leave happy, feeling secure in her secret and he would never have to worry about letting anyone down again.

Ash sighed. Dealing with other beings was complicated. He truly was better off alone.

He waited a while but eventually Ruby did come upstairs unprompted to get something to eat. She smiled when she passed him. ”Hey. Did you sleep better this time?”

He nodded. ”Yes. I notice the cleaners made a lot of progress today.”

”Yeah, they did. I got some stuff to make this place a little easier for me to live in too; I hope you don't mind. You can get rid of it when I leave,” she said as she puttered around the kitchen before finding some food item and sticking it inside a slotted metal contraption.

Ash didn't really care one way or the other. It wasn't like he would ever have a reason to go into the kitchen once she was gone. It wouldn't affect him at all.

He leaned against the wall and tried to be casual even though he was still thinking about what he saw earlier. ”Would you like to go to the furniture store now?”

Ruby frowned. ”Is it even still open?”

That…he did not know. Blair had left out the rather crucial detail of what the store hours were. The apothecary was open until from noon to midnight to cater to both types of sleep schedules common among the fae.